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Is a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine a Medical Physician?

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If you are going to be calling a degree holding person a medical doctor, they have to attend an accredited medical school of the country and qualify to sit and take the medical professional exam established by the medical governance board of that country. DPM is offered by US schools that are not listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools. If you open the World Directory of Medical Schools, 197 results will appear for the US, starting with AT Still University Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. All MD and DO programs are listed in the directory, because these are medical schools that provide physicians (what this page is about) to the country’s workforce. Furthermore, USMLE, which is the country’s known medical professional exam, states eligibility of an examinee as follows: “ Officially enrolled in, or a graduate of, a US or Canadian medical school leading to the MD degree (LCME accredited), OR  Officially enrolled in, or a graduate of, a US medical school leading to the DO degree (COCA accredited), OR  Officially enrolled in, or a graduate of, a medical school outside the US and Canada listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools as meeting ECFMG eligibility requirements, and meet other ECFMG criteria.” I do not see DPMs qualifying to take the country’s medical professional exam. If you are going to argue that DPMs have a doctoral degree (like many allied healthcare professionals) and do so and so maneuvers to a human body, then why don’t you add all dental degrees in this page? They’re also doctoral degree holders who do certain surgical maneuvers to a person. Many allied healthcare professionals like pharmacists (doctoral degree holders) do additional residencies after their degree like DPMs; again, this doesn’t make them physicians. DPM residencies are not funded by the ACGME like medical residencies done by MD/DOs. DPMs are not medical physicians by any point of argument. Therefore, I suggest revoking the degree from this page. Iamdoctah (talk) 23:08, 18 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Are Ophthalmologists really physicians? They are regional clinicians/surgeons just like podiatry and dentistry. It doesn't matter that Ophthalmologists have unlimited scope because they don't actually utilize it. The term "Physician" isn't owned by any one particular country, organization, or profession. Get off your high horse. 206.127.187.97 (talk) 22:57, 16 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Overly subjective or unsubstantiated phrase?

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The phrase, "and such hard-won membership is itself a mark of status", seems overly subjective and unsupported, and should possibly be removed. PhD4NRG (talk) 03:29, 24 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

DOs weren't accepted by the AMA

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteopathic_medicine_in_the_United_States#:~:text=In%201969%2C%20the%20American%20Medical,active%20members%20of%20the%20Association.

The AMA didn't accept osteopaths until 1969. The AMA protested osteopaths for years before that decision.

Similarly, Podiatrists are physicians regardless of the AMA and ACGME's stance. Orthopedics, MD, DO is losing the battle against podiatrists. If orthopedics wanted ALL aspects of the lower extremity, they shouldn't have behaved as if wound care and diabetic complications are beneath them.

Veterans Affairs considers podiatrists to be physicians. https://www.hmpgloballearningnetwork.com/site/podiatry/podiatry-va-parity-bill-passes-congress https://www.hmpgloballearningnetwork.com/site/podiatry/va-provider-equity-act-passes-house-representatives https://www.va.gov/vhapublications/ViewPublication.asp?pub_ID=5959

Semi-protected edit request on 10 February 2023

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Remove simply doctor from description of physician. Doctor refers to level of degree, not profession. Applemill123 (talk) 04:27, 10 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: "Doctor" is very commonly used to refer to the profession Cannolis (talk) 05:29, 10 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Edit request

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The section: "In the large English-speaking federations (United States, Canada, Australia), the licensing or registration of medical practitioners is done at a state or provincial level, or nationally as in New Zealand. Australian states usually have a "Medical Board", which has now been replaced by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) in most states,"

Should be changed to: "In the large English-speaking federations (United States, Canada), the licensing or registration of medical practitioners is done at a state or provincial level, or nationally as in Australia or New Zealand."

Reason being that registration in Australia is at a national level. The rest of the paragraph implies it but it's errounously stated to be at a state level in that first sentence currently. 124.171.211.77 (talk) 06:34, 18 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What does phycologist mean

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tel 165.165.120.87 (talk) 09:55, 27 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 5 April 2025

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Physician → Doctor (medical) – The title "physician" fails WP:TITLE on two main reasons.

Reason 1: Fails WP:CRITERIA on Recognizability and Naturalness This is the main article for the profession most commonly known as "doctor" or "medical doctor" globally, yet it is titled "physician". Outside of the US/Canada, it is unnatural to refer to a medical practitioner as "physician" over "doctor", and even within US/Canada the vernacular prefers "doctor". Learners of English are exposed to the term "doctor" much earlier than "physician".

Reason 2: Fails WP:CRITERIA on Precision and fails WP:GLOBAL. The article itself acknowledges that there are significant regional variation of the meaning of "physician", to the point where the two terms ("physician" and "doctor") cannot simply be assumed to be synonymous.

For example, in Australia/New Zealand, only internal medicine specialists who are fellows of the RACP are called "physicians" unqualified. Other doctors, such as surgeons, general practitioners and anaesthetists, are never referred to as "physicians". The official catch-all term is "medical practitioner" according to the regulator, while "doctor" is the catch-all term in the vernacular. In Australia at least, using "physician" as a catch-all is akin to using "barrister" to refer to all lawyers: highly inaccurate.

The UK is similar; while the BMA does refer to physicians as "a general term for someone who practices medicine", it also conspicuously qualifies this as referring mostly to internal medicine specialists, who receive their training from the RCP, RCPE or RCPSG. Similarly to Aus/NZ, calling doctors in general "physicians" remains unnatural. The regulator also uses "doctor" as the catch-all term.

Conclusion: This page's title should be the best catch-all term for medical doctors. So why not just use "doctor"? The term "physician" significantly fails WP:TITLE criteria and is a prime example of why WP:GLOBAL exists. I note a previous move attempt on 8 May 2020 which was undiscussed, so I think it's fair game to launch a new move request with a discussion, as I anticipate some controversy.

I imagine some opposition to my proposal may come from editors who live in areas of the world where "physician" might be relatively synonymous with "doctor", and the mapping may feel natural. That's fine, but this proposal is to draw attention to the fact that there are many areas of the world (especially the non-US/Canada Anglosphere) where it's unnatural at best, and inaccurate at worst, to use "physician" as a catch-all for doctors. Wikipedia should strive for the most natural titling as per WP:TITLE, so we must factor in non-American/Canadian systems too.

If this move succeeds, I think it's fine for "physician" to redirect to this page still, and for the term to feature prominently in the first sentence and throughout the page. But the term's not fit for purpose as a title. LStravaganz (talk) 03:56, 5 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  • Support I also think there’s a strong case this is the primary topic, and therefore the disambiguation is unnecessary.
Rafts of Calm (talk) 12:01, 5 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Agree as well. In English, it's undisputed that "doctor" has well and truly shifted away from its original meaning of "doctorate holder". I'd be fine with either "Doctor" or "Doctor (medical)" as the title, but certainly not "Physician". LStravaganz (talk) 14:26, 5 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
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